- Impact
- 18
This is not Legal advise, I am not a Lawyer, just my personal observations.
Hi, I was in a previous discussion regarding the chance of losing a domain name that is getting significant traffic because it is being mistaken for a well know website.
The name does not need to be exactly similar to be a potential problem. The trading off complaint can be made even if the domain names are only slightly similar. Think of a domain name that on it's own would not generate any traffic as it has never been developed or advertised, yet it gets significant traffic just sitting parked or otherwise unused.
A complainant could try to make the case the unusually large traffic the the website is un-natural and can only be the case of mistaken identity to the well know site, therefore the trading off complaint could be shown to be valid.
The best defence would be at the early stages of ownership to make a valid website destination, with unique content. This site could obtain reasonable popularity and offer a plausible reason for the traffic. It could cloud the issue of un-natural traffic and make it very hard to make the trading off complaint, stand up.
Many refer to the original registration date, if it pre-dates the actual start up of the popular website, offers immunity to a UDRP filing.
This only holds true to the original and successive owners, if their registrations or purchases also pre-date the popular websites creation date. This creation date can also be extended earlier if there was any public press about the intended project name or if a registrant was an insider with private news.
Some UDRP panels have said that the registration date is effectively reset every time a new owner takes ownership. Like musical chairs the final owner must have purchased, acquired the name before the Start up of the popular website.
This can cause problems for new owners of great domain name that may not necessarily sound or look exactly the same as a Trade Marked name but the public thinks they are the same.
So if you acquire such a domain name beware that you could face these difficulties and as soon as possible put up a legitimate website that has nothing to do with the other trade marked/popular website. If you did all this prior to them being popular/well known you should, could, be okay. It really depends on how similar the domain names are at that point.
Hi, I was in a previous discussion regarding the chance of losing a domain name that is getting significant traffic because it is being mistaken for a well know website.
The name does not need to be exactly similar to be a potential problem. The trading off complaint can be made even if the domain names are only slightly similar. Think of a domain name that on it's own would not generate any traffic as it has never been developed or advertised, yet it gets significant traffic just sitting parked or otherwise unused.
A complainant could try to make the case the unusually large traffic the the website is un-natural and can only be the case of mistaken identity to the well know site, therefore the trading off complaint could be shown to be valid.
The best defence would be at the early stages of ownership to make a valid website destination, with unique content. This site could obtain reasonable popularity and offer a plausible reason for the traffic. It could cloud the issue of un-natural traffic and make it very hard to make the trading off complaint, stand up.
Many refer to the original registration date, if it pre-dates the actual start up of the popular website, offers immunity to a UDRP filing.
This only holds true to the original and successive owners, if their registrations or purchases also pre-date the popular websites creation date. This creation date can also be extended earlier if there was any public press about the intended project name or if a registrant was an insider with private news.
Some UDRP panels have said that the registration date is effectively reset every time a new owner takes ownership. Like musical chairs the final owner must have purchased, acquired the name before the Start up of the popular website.
This can cause problems for new owners of great domain name that may not necessarily sound or look exactly the same as a Trade Marked name but the public thinks they are the same.
So if you acquire such a domain name beware that you could face these difficulties and as soon as possible put up a legitimate website that has nothing to do with the other trade marked/popular website. If you did all this prior to them being popular/well known you should, could, be okay. It really depends on how similar the domain names are at that point.
Last edited:
